Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 11 2023

LatAmOil COLOMBIA LatAmOil

They discussed the challenges facing Brazil and
Colombia as countries richly endowed with
renewable resources and faced with the respon-
sibility of protecting the Amazon rainforest.
Both countries are home to sections of the larg-
est tropical forest in the world.
Prates emphasised the need for energy
companies to work with governments to pro-
tect the environment. He also drew attention
to the environmental projects that Petrobras
has undertaken with the goal of preserving the
Amazon rainforest, citing the company’s suc-
cessful operations in Urucu, in the heart of the
Amazon region, as an example of sustainable
development in the oil and gas industry. (Urucu
is a cluster of onshore oilfields in the Solimoes
basin that Petrobras sold to Eneva, a privately Prates (L) and Vélez (R) met in Houston on March 10 (Photo: Petrobras)
owned Brazilian company, in early 2022.)
The talks also focused on the prospects for 76 km from the city of Santa Marta.
extraction of natural gas from the Tayrona Petrobras and Ecopetrol are planning to
block offshore Colombia, which Petrobras aims carry out additional exploration drilling at Tay-
to develop in partnership with its Colombian rona over the next two years. In its statement, the
counterpart Ecopetrol. The two companies Brazilian NOC said that the discovery increases
discovered a significant accumulation of gas in the prospects for opening up a new frontier
Uchuva-1, a deepwater well drilled at the site, in basin offshore Colombia and establishes a foun-
July 2022. The well was sunk in 830-metre-deep dation for expanding bilateral co-operation in
water at a site located 32 km from the coast and the oil and gas sector. ™

GUYANA
Hess CEO does not expect relinquishment

demands to affect Stabroek development

US-BASED Hess Corp. indicated last week that
it did not expect the government of Guyana’s
demand that ExxonMobil (US) relinquish 20%
of the offshore Stabroek block to affect develop-
ment operations.
Hess is one of the non-operating partners in
Stabroek, which contains Guyana’s only produc-
ing oilfields. A subsidiary of ExxonMobil (US)
is leading development work at the 6.6mn-acre
(26,800-square km) block, and China National
Offshore Operating Corp. (CNOOC) also has a
working interest in the project.
According to John Hess, the CEO of Hess
Corp., Georgetown’s expectations of relinquish-
ment will not affect the sections of the block Most of the finds at Stabroek have been made in the “Golden Lane” (Image: Hess)
where ExxonMobil and the other investors are
currently producing oil or where they intend joint venture agreed to those provisions when
to produce oil in the future. There may have they signed the PSC, he emphasised.
been some misinformation circulating on this He went on to say that Guyana’s government
subject, given that the production-sharing con- had assured the investors that they were not
tract (PSC) signed with Guyana clearly includes looking to amend the contract. “They’ve been
provisions for relinquishment under certain cir- very clear to us and Exxon that they’re going to
cumstances, he said during the 51st Annual Sco- honour the PSC that we have in the country and
tia Howard Weil Energy Conference in Miami. that they want us to develop their oil resources
ExxonMobil and the other members of the as fast as possible,” he stated.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 11 15•March•2023